a16z, Coinbase back $50m funding round for Morpho

Decentralized crypto lender Morpho has announced a $50 million strategic round backed by a16z and Coinbase Ventures among other top crypto venture capital firms.

On August 1, 2024, Morpho disclosed that Ribbit Capital, an early-stage VC investor whose portfolio includes Robinhood, Revolut, Coinbase, NuBank, and Mercado Libre, led the funding round.

Funding key to Morpho growth, CEO says

Morpho will use the strategic funding to bolster its network’s decentralization. The funds will also go into supporting global growth for financial infrastructure as a public good, Morpho CEO Paul Frambot wrote in a blog post. According to Frambot, support from these top venture capital firms is key to the protocol’s continued growth within the decentralized finance space.

Two years since its launch, Morpho has grown from its primary product. Having started as an optimization layer for interest rates on Aave and Compound dubbed Morpho Optimizer, the platform has evolved to Morpho Blue, a layered architecture that allows for the building of lending protocols that feature built-in risk management features. Funding provides an opportunity for Morpho to thrive by extending grants to active contributors helping to build its DeFi infrastructure.

“The potential impact of Morpho extends far beyond current DeFi markets, as the protocol is capable of becoming decentralized infrastructure to underpin a truly global, internet-native financial system,” Frambot noted.

a16z, Coinbase Ventures back Morpho

Other than Ribbit Capital, Morpho Labs’ latest funding round attracted the participation of some of crypto market’s biggest VC firms.

They include Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Variant, Brevan Howard and BlockTower.

The strategic funding round follows the $18 million financing round Morpho Labs secured in July, 2022. a16z and Variant led that round.